Newspaper expects images for free.

I recently had the opportunity to shoot a newsworthy event (right time, right place, right gear etc.). To my knowledge, no local papers had any photogs there. I snapped a few decent shots. I slapped together a quick gallery of the images and sent out a few emails to the local papers stating that I had images of this event that were available to be licensed. The gallery clearly stated that I retained all rights to the photos and provided contact information for licensing information and that larger size images were available.

Today i received an email from on of the editors thanking me and asking who to give credit to in the paper. I am well aware that photo credits don't pay the bills. I am surprised by this response, a newspaper editor should at least know what a copyright is. My other business advertises with this publication and the certainly don't do anything for free for me. It is a small town weekly newspaper, I was expecting something in the $25-40 range. I recently relocated to the area and what unsure what the going rates in this market are, but somebody I spoke to gets an additional $50 per article when he provides a photo for his articles for the local competing paper.

I thought the the email stating that the images were available to license and the copyright and license statement on the gallery would more than suggest that these images were not free for the taking. I did not set a price in the email or gallery because I was unsure what the market is here.

The original images were quite small (450 x 300). I did not expect somebody to rip them of for print. After the email 'thanking' me I did watermark them (perhaps too late).

I know their deadline is Wed. or so. I am thinking about sending and email to clarify that the images are copyrighted and I expect fair payment for their use. Any thoughts?

Rich

Giving the editor the benefit of the doubt, my guess is that he is trying to see if he can get your images for free first. Why pay for something when it could be had for free? If you fall for the bait, then they've just saved themselves a few bucks.

I would definitely send a clarification email to the editor again to indicate that your images are copyrighted and that you expect payment from them. Depending on how news-worthy that particular event was, perhaps you will get some compensation for it. But I wouldn't be surprised either if the paper just ran the story with no pictures at all.

-Lik

Everyone expects photos for free, they think as it is related to them that they are of no use to you, so "well you might as well give them to me for Free. you are only going to chuck them away"

Don't delay sending the email. The newspaper business is all about deadlines.

Before you email call the editor and speak to him directly then put in writing the results of your discussion with him. The personal touch of actually speaking to someone can often pay more dividends than the cold impersonal medium of email.

The local paper (daily 6 days a week) here used to give $25 a pic for every one they used in the paper. I will say it must be pretty news worthy though. Also a weekly paper tends to be smaller and have less of a budget. Don't be surprised if he says thanks but no and runs the story with no pics for not wanting to pay for them.

Our weekly paper offers $25/pic. I have no issues with that since we are a small town.
Do you know what the circulation is on this paper?

our daily is $15/pic which I laughed my butt off to, but that's what the photo editor told me, though have yet to go in and find out myself from those who pay the togs. I would say in the $25 range is fair. When you sent the email what did you say in terms of licensing? I'm going to be hitting around 50 papers throughout the US of local players from the teams playing up here for the summer and thinking of listing cost by circulation and if weekly/daily. I know I seen that on Getty or wireimage or somewhere before, wish I remembered which to get an idea - so if anyone seen anything like that send it along

I'd go with the phone call suggestion from shadow, far more personal than an e-mail. You'll probably end up getting a reply similar to this "Hi Joe, Thank you for your reply. I can't justify buying your photos though so I'll leave it. We do get so many for free."

Best of luck though.

I did sports pics for a couple of small (5,000 circulation) once a week newspapers for over 5 years. They paid of the order $15 to $20 a published pic, but I was using their film. I have not done any since going digital.
Every Editor knows he/she has to pay -- but they all try to "bend the rules" as much as they can. Go visit him/her and get it sorted.

JoevL wrote in post #3441638
I'd go with the phone call suggestion from shadow, far more personal than an e-mail. You'll probably end up getting a reply similar to this "Hi Joe, Thank you for your reply. I can't justify buying your photos though so I'll leave it. We do get so many for free."

Best of luck though.

And who's fault is that. It's come back to haunt all these "wanna be" "weekend warrior" photographers hasn't it.

There are times when it's best to say no to a job.

I think I will just wait for a few days to see if they print the pics without permission as they have implied. They know who I am, my name, phone, copyright and address are on the site and I do business with this paper on a regular basis and have dealt specifically with the editor. I am kind of disturbed by the "who took these' tone of their email. I expect that if I give them name for credit, they will take this as consent to print. I don't need sell these pics, but I will not give them away. I took time out of my day to go and shoot and process the images on my own.

I expect to see this person face to face soon through the normal course of business and I will discuss it with them (sooner if they steal the images).

Rich

Rich, it seems strange to me that you are waiting this one out instead of actively pursuing what is rightfully yours. Of course, I respect your decision, but it just seems a bit strange to me.

-Lik

I haven't a half hour to sit down an play phone tag. If the steal it I will pursue it immediately . I will pick up this weeks paper tomorrow to see. Beyond that I will speak with the editor in person in the normal course of business in the next two weeks.

Rich